Rigging the Game
I never met Ariel Sharon. Thus no snippets of private conversation are mine to impart nor can I regale you with any trenchant insights into his personality, philosophy or his life in general.
By all accounts, he was many things and, no doubt, much more:
Ruthless,
Ambitious,
Smart,
Audacious
Impulsive,
Courageous,
Pro-active.
If all Israelis, Palestinians and the rest of us could get together and emulate some of these virtues and even failings, then prospects for deliverance from yet another long year of fruitless negotiation and continuing conflict might measurably increase.
Try to think of the overall situation as being like that of a war zone – which is not too far from the truth. Do you attack? Do you defend? Do you encircle? Do you engage in a frontal assault or outflank? Do you infiltrate the enemy camp? Do you hold the line or withdraw to prepared positions?
Or, like Arik, do you eventually sense the futility of it all and make some last-minute attempt to bring about peace even though the chances of such an outcome seem ever to recede with each new day that dawns?
It may take the entire mass of humanity to carry it out but, at this late stage, rigging the game may now be the only option left if any definitive ending is ever to be forthcoming.
Do you think Arik would approve? From what little I know of him, I rather think he might.